By Paul Berger

Amazon.com Inc. suspended rider training on a new three-wheeled cargo e-bike to be used for package delivery in New York City after one toppled onto its side last week during a practice session, according to people familiar with the matter.

Whole Foods Market, which is owned by Amazon, already uses two-wheeled cargo e-bikes to deliver groceries from three stores in the city. The three-wheeled customized cargo bikes are for a new program yet to launch. It isn't known if the suspension of the training will delay the program's start.

"We always put safety first and conduct rigorous testing before launching any new program, and we look forward to launching this one as soon as we're ready," said Alexandra Miller, an Amazon spokeswoman. The company said it wished the rider whose bike flipped a speedy recovery.

The rider was among about 10 people participating in a training program conducted by Bike New York, an education and advocacy group. Bike New York expected to train more than 200 riders on the cargo bikes over the next few months, the people familiar with the matter said.

Ken Podziba, president and chief executive of Bike New York, said: "We knew all along that this safety program was part of Amazon's rigorous testing and that this innovative e-cargo bike would not hit the streets of NYC unless it was 100% safe enough to do so."

New York City has been encouraging delivery firms and grocers to convert from trucks to cargo e-bikes to reduce congestion, improve street safety and help the environment. It started a pilot program for cargo e-bikes in 2019 that offered companies free access to commercial loading zones usually used by trucks.

Cargo e-bike deliveries in New York City more than doubled between May 2020 and January 2021 to 45,000 trips, according to a report released this month by the city Transportation Department. About 80% of deliveries were to residential addresses, mostly on side streets, where bikes could more easily fit into spaces between cars, reducing instances of double parking.

Most three-wheeled cargo e-bikes have a rider seated behind a windshield and a boxy compartment for carrying goods to the rear. The Amazon model has a throttle as well as an electric-motor that kicks in when a rider pedals, according to the people familiar with the matter. Its speed is limited to 8 miles per hour, the people said.

Amazon suspended training on the customized cargo bike after the one operated by a trainee rider toppled onto its side May 12 during an exercise at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the people said. The people said the rider was practicing sharp turns by weaving in and out of cones when the incident happened.

One of the people familiar with the matter said the bikes were more stable when they were weighed down, but the bike that fell over was empty. The person, who has ridden the bike, described its design as narrow and tall.

Many standard cargo e-bikes designed to carry packages are 48 inches wide to fit the dimensions of a conventional pallet. Amazon's cargo e-bike had to fall within guidelines of a New York state law passed last year that mandated e-bikes be no greater than 36 inches wide. State Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Democrat from Queens, has introduced legislation that would expand the legal width of an e-bike to 55 inches.

The city Transportation Department said in a report released this month that the state law prevented some wider cargo e-bikes, including ones used by United Parcel Service Inc., from being operated on streets. A spokeswoman for UPS said the firm had paused use of the bikes and supported Ms. Ramos's legislation.

The report also found that each bike covered an average of 20 service miles a day, helping to replace truck deliveries, congestion and pollution. City officials are considering creating an annual permit for commercial-cargo-bike operations, as well as cargo-bike-only curb regulations to encourage greater use of the bikes, according to the report.

Write to Paul Berger at Paul.Berger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-20-21 0814ET